Scituate increases full-day kindergarten fee

Monday

SCITUATE – The cost for full-day kindergarten classes for the 2018-19 school year is increasing.

The school committee voted Monday to raise the fee from $3,000 to $3,500.

Paul Donlan, director of business and finance, said the increase is needed to maintain the quality of the program.

“We haven’t raised our rates since we initially started our program in 2009-2010,” he said.

Salaries and the cost of supplies have increased, but full-day kindergarten tuition has not, he said.

There are 11 full-day kindergarten classes and one half-day kindergarten class in Scituate. The half-day class is free. Each class has one teacher and one paraprofessional.

A total of 211 students are enrolled in the full-day program.

The projected enrollment for the next school year is 195, with 40 of those students expected to be no-fee or reduced-fee students.

“I hate to charge families more, but I understand we’re providing a competitive program,” school committee member Peter Gates said.

Donlan said Scituate has the lowest tuition of districts in the region that charge tuition.

School committee member Michael Hayes opposed a fee increase.

“I have a simple philosophy on education that I’ve advocated for over the last 30 years. Full-day kindergarten is important to all our schools,” he said. “If you hire good teachers and have low class sizes, you’re going to have success with students.

“Scituate is Scituate,” he said. “We have a number of families that can afford this, but it doesn’t make this right.”

School Superintendent Ron Griffin said Scituate does not want to charge fees at all, but high-quality kindergarten is costly.

“Any time a public school has to charge a fee, it puts a pit in your stomach,” Griffin said.

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